


Library Visit

by orphan_account



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Awkwardness, Funny, Gen, Gen Work, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 04:53:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18887554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Barbara Gordon had seen a lot of interesting people in the Gotham City Library.This guy however, took the cake.





	Library Visit

Over the years she had been working at the Gotham City Public Library, Barbara Gordon had encountered quite a number of odd people. She supposed she should’ve anticipated that, looking back. After all, Gotham City seemed to be a magnet for oddness, and why shouldn’t it be? The two most well-known figures here was a man who dressed as a Bat and a psychopathic clown. When one city’s notoriety was based on that, then weirdness was to be expected. 

While working here, she had interacted with all kinds of types: obsessive fanboys and fangirls who wanted to check out every single piece written about a certain hero or villain, old reformed villains such as Bookworm, police officials of every rank, cosplayers, and more. One time, the Flash had even popped in once to ask if he could use the restroom. Things could get interesting here. 

And if she was being honest, she enjoyed seeing those types, so long as they didn’t start trouble. They spiced things up, and besides, did she really have the right to be calling anyone weird when she went out at night dressed as a bat herself and fighting crime? Not really. Besides, these types at least gave her funny stories to tell her friends and family. In fact, her and Dick had an unofficial list of who was the most unique person she’d met during her time here. 

For a while, first place had been held by a crazy conspiracist lady who had forks tangled into her hair, but this most recent person had already beat her by a longshot. 

After all, it was Jonathan fucking Crane, aka, the infamous Scarecrow.

Barbara had nearly not recognized him. She had been sitting in front of the library’s computer, replying to emails when suddenly the figure of a tall man approached the desk and slid a large tome in front of her, plainly saying, “I would like to return this book.” Pretty straightforward. 

Still having emails to reply to, she had hurriedly said, “Right away, sir. Do you have your card with you?”

She was just going to keep this interaction quick and brief. She was honestly peeved she even had to be having this conversation. She missed the days when people could just return their books in a metal slot. It certainly had made things a lot simpler. But of course, since this was Gotham City, people had to ruin in. The slot had already been on thin ice with the heads when someone had dropped a hypodermic needle there, but it got officially banned when some two-bit thug dropped a _bomb_ in there in an attempt to launch an early career as a Gotham rogue. Luckily, the bomb didn’t detonate and was taken care of… but that didn’t mean there hadn’t been a victim in that incident. The poor innocent book slot was taken out immediately afterwards.

And so Barbara’s already busy schedule had to be even more complicated by having her manually return every goddamn book given to her. She luckily had learned to be somewhat quick at it by now.

Moving away from the computer, she had grabbed his card which he had placed on top of the book, scanned it, double checked to make sure the book he was returning was the one that was listed, and then put it away. Handing him the card, she put on a fake pleasant smile and said, “Thank you very much, and have a good day, sir.”

The man nodded and murmured a thank you back. But he didn’t leave. Instead, he lingered at the desk. She shifted uncomfortably for a moment, wondering why he wasn’t leaving. Looking at him, she said, “Is there something else I can do for you, sir?”

“Apologies, but do I know you? You look vaguely familiar. Did you attend Gotham University? Did I have you as a student in one of my classes?” the man asked. 

Oh, so he thought he recognized her from somewhere else. Shaking her head and feeling slightly confused, she said, “No, I don’t attend Gotham University yet-” She looked at this man harder, trying to see if she could recognize him from anywhere.  
She nearly jumped out of her skin when it finally hit her. She did recognize this man! It was Jonathan Crane!

Part of her felt embarrassed for not recognizing him immediately, but to be fair, she usually saw the man when he was adorned in a scarecrow costume. Not usually out of it. When he was out of it, he usually had a black eye or something else to accompany it. Besides, Jonathan Crane was not the most distinctive-looking rogue. For example, if she saw say, Oswald Cobblepot, Harvey Dent, Harleen Quinzel, or Pamela Isley walking around, she’d probably recognize them immediately. There was no mistaking them.

But Jonathan Crane was an incredibly ordinary-looking despite his reputation. He was just an older man with a shock of light brown hair, chilling blue eyes hidden behind a pair of spectacles, and a gangly body. The only thing that stood out about him was his imposing height and the way he seemed to stare into your soul in some scenarios. He looked like a lot of other people she met. 

But now that she recognized him, she was hoping to every deity he didn’t recognize _her_.

He was giving her a look of confusion, asking, “Is something the matter?” 

Barbara shook her head quickly and said, “No sorry, I was just trying to remember if I met you anywhere. I can’t think of anything.” As she said that, memories of him trying to slice her in a half with a scythe and her kicking him in the face flashed in her mind.

Jonathan let out a grunt, before shrugging and turning around and saying, “Sorry to have bothered you, then. It must have been a misunderstanding.” 

Then with that, he padded away, leaving Barbara’s heart pounding and wondering what to do. She had heard from Bruce that Jonathan had been released from Arkham legally, but should she call them just in case? His outfit didn’t look like he could carry anything like vials of fear toxin or needles in them, but the rogues were sneaky bastards. What should she do? 

She decided to check the information she still had on the computer. Well, that explained why no one had freaked out about the fact that Jonathan Crane was registered in the system. He was going under a pseudonym. Irving Diedrich. She looked at the heavy textbook he had given back. It looked like an ancient Psychology tome of some kind. At least it wasn’t a chemistry book, but that still didn’t comfort her much.

She kept her eyes on him until he left the library and she practically deflated with relief.

She was going to have to update her logs when she got home. 

Jonathan Crane went to Gotham City Library. 

She couldn’t wait to tell Dick when she got back.

**Author's Note:**

> Not my best work, but I was sick of working on it, lol. Ever since I saw Barbara worked at the Gotham City Library in some iterations, I was like, "Her and Jonathan might have met." and wrote a piece on it. I hope you enjoyed. 
> 
> Also Crane's pseudonym was the one he had in the comic 'Study Hall' which is a good Scarecrow comic and I highly recommend!
> 
> Critique is appreciated. 
> 
> Have a nice day!


End file.
